Description
The majority of space start-ups claim to be developing new, unique products for the market. This is predicated on a business approach which celebrates ‘novel’ concepts without assessing how this compares to similar, historical ventures. And it is often down to a highly experienced professional to identify this repetition, and they are in short supply!
By approaching innovation and product development that is more firmly based in the commercial ambition, rather than for true societal benefit, we persist in a cyclical process of creating technological solutions that actually create new problems that then rely on new technological innovations to solve.
Not only is this wasteful, it soaks up quantities of limited funding available for real innovation and does little to help ensure innovative products lead to businesses that generate economic return and create jobs. In short, a lot of novel innovation can be seen as little more than processes that support the self-indulgence of the founder rather than anything more profound.
In a low carbon future, taking more judicious steps towards developing new concepts, ie: where existing technology and components are first leveraged to resolve design requirements before creating something entirely new, is a possibility. In the same way we measure the percentage of a recycled product coming from recycled materials, we should also promote how much innovative products leverage existing technologies in order to get to market.
